Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Exodus 15:20

Eastern Fathers

Gregory of Nyssa

But besides other things the action of Miriam the prophetess also gives rise to these surmisings of ours. Directly the sea was crossed she took in her hand a dry and sounding timbrel and conducted the women's dance. By this timbrel the story may mean to imply virginity, as first perfected by Miriam; whom indeed I would believe to be a type of Mary the mother of God. …

On Virginity 19 ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

This is what Moses sang and the sons of Israel with him, what Miriam the prophetess sang and the daughters of Israel with her. It is what we too now should sing, whether it means men and women or means our spirit and our flesh. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus," you see, as the apostle says, "have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires." This can be suitably understood in the drum which Miriam took to accompany this song: flesh, you see, is stretched over wood to make a drum. …

Sermon 363.4 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

And Miriam taking the timbrel led the dances with maidenly modesty. But consider whom she was then prefiguring. Was she not a type of the church, who as a virgin with unstained spirit joins together the religious gatherings of the people to sing divine songs?

Concerning Virginity 1.3.12 ↗